khaled

In my opinion, if there's someone that you'd like to work with, go ahead and contact him/her. But if you contact a professor for the sake of "contacting a professor", it's going to be clear from the content of your email that you are only seeking a push to your application.

I was planning to apply to 15 schools ( I know this is a large number, but ECE is very competitive and my scholarship only permits me to go to top 20 programs, so I need to maximize my chances) and until now i applied to 8 programs. I was talking to one of the professors at my undergrad school (who is famous in my field but sadly he barely knows me and didn't taught me anything) and it seems that he is excited to help me getting in a top graduate school and turned out he knows one of my POI's and offered to talk to him regarding my application (he knows him, since they are all working on the same research topics). So, he told me to give him my application number once I submit my application. I submitted my application and sent him the application number. He then asked me to make sure I really want to go to that particular school, he told me something like this "make sure it is ur preferred school, because if i talk to him he will be happy to have you in their program, so please do not embarrass me and go there". I really got excited by how confident he was about his connections, and told him that I'm really interested in going to that school (actually I am). But now it has been a week and there is no reply from my POI yet (probably because of holidays), so he will send him another email on January if he didn't reply. So, what do you guys think? should I relax and wait until my POI reply? or should I forget about this and continue applying to other schools?

you are basically in : ) ....

I guess u'll get admitted into 2 Ivies, the 2 state schools, 1 non-Ivy top 10

I guess u'll get admitted into 4 schools ...

International Applicant GPA: 3.75/4 GRE: 145/162/3.5 Fully funded by my employer (my undergrad school) 1 internship at GE and some extracurricular activities Applied to: MIT Stanford UC Berkeley Caltech University of Minnesota U of I at Urbana-Champaign UPenn UW-Madison UCLA

as an update, 2 schools replied. One of them replaced SOP and the other one did not (they said my submission was final).

I discovered similar minor typos in 3 of my SOP's. Sent an email to the admissions office saying I uploaded the wrong file (without mentioning it has typos), and asked them nicely to replace it with the attached one, and then I hoped for the best. If they replace it, fine, if not, I still did not tell them what's wrong with my file. Btw, didn't have a reply yet, since the emails were sent on the weekend.

let's swap ... i guess mine kinda sucks, and i'm struggling with it

Anyone is applying for engineering programs (EE is preferable) and willing to exchange SOP's with feedback?

anyone is interested in a PHS exchange? (I'm applying for MS/PhD in EE)

Thank you I know that I'm not committing to work with the professors I mention in my SOP, but I'm afraid that my application will be limited to being accepted by the professors I mention, is that true?

I'm applying for a masters degree in ECE and i'm wondering if I have to mention the names of the professors i'd like to work with? I stated my research interests and background clearly but I don't want to limit myself to few professors in the SOP and I want to have options open, specially that I'm not a PhD applicant. What do you think?

I guess, with an excellent SOP and LORs, you can get wherever you want.

In short, I'm and international applicant planning to apply for top 20 ECE MS programs and here's my profile: GPA: 3.75/4 TOEFL iBT: 97/120 GRE: 162 Q/145 V/3 AW .... awful AW and V and I have a scholarship which covers the tuition fees and expenses ( so I won't compete nor bother the school about getting funds ) My question is, what should i focus on? is the GRE worth being retaken? Or should focus on the rest of the application and forget about the GRE? ( i still didn't work on the SOP and I have a chance to work with a professor at my home university on a research ) .... I'm honestly confused, sometimes I think I should focus on the rest of the application and sometimes I feel my awful GRE V&AW can get me rejected easily. What do you think, given the fact the deadlines are on December and the time is limited.

when u apply, u provide them with the contact information of 3 people for the recommendations, these people are usually professors who know you well.

hello everyone I'm planning to apply for MS in electrical and computer engineering (interested in the area of control systems) and my BS was in control and instrumentation systems engineering. My CGPA is 3.75/4 and MGPA is 3.92/4 and I was the 2nd top of a class of around 130 students. Also, my performance was increasing continuously and got straight A+'s in my control engineering courses during my senior year. I had a 2 months internship with GE and I studied in the US for 1 semester as an exchange student and got 3.5/4. I'm currently working in the GRE and targeting scores of 150 V and 165 Q (i think these scores are realistic given the time of preparation I have). Since i don't have research experiences I'm not quite sure that I have a chance to get into MIT/Stanford level. So, I'm targeting schools like UCLA, UCSB, Purdue, A&M ...etc. But still, they are selective and I don't what are my chances if getting into these schools. By the way, I have a scholarship from my home university to study abroad and then come back as an assistant professor, and a statement proving that will be given to me once I apply. Your opinions are highly appreciated.